


Her Emerald Angels

by Ormsdottir



Category: Warhammer 40.000
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Lesbian Character, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-14
Updated: 2020-03-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:54:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23144266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ormsdottir/pseuds/Ormsdottir
Summary: This is the testimony of Julia Istharan, given to Aaron Valor, Chaplain of the Second Founding Adeptus Astartes Chapter Lutra Stellaris. She is one of the few survivors of the Attack of System Hecate.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Her Emerald Angels

**Author's Note:**

> This short story has been HEAVILY based upon the short film GUARDSMAN by Richard Boylan; Check it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bgi5STRe8E

_···Scrutiny of Julia Istharan···  
···Survivor of the Ork Invasion of the System Hecate···  
···By chaplain of the Lutra Stellaris Chapter: Aaron Valor···  
:::2.596 VCM.M41:::_

Death rained from the skies as fire and blazing heated rock. That’s what we saw through the long and slim slits of the manufactorum, while we were fulfilling our sacred duty to the Emperor, praised be His name. Then the planet answered with the flaming fury of the adamantine ammunition we were forging. It was not enough.

  
I remember the voice of the tech-priests spill from the vox grills, modified, artificial. _“Do not abandon your position. You are of the Omnissiah, your actions are the worship of the Machine God. Any deserter shall be punished”_. I also remember the face of Aurina, my love, when we listened to these words. Fear and horror. We did not know, though, what fear and horror actually were.

  
Hours later, the once brown sky had turned into jet black, a darkened stage broken by the bolts of the planetary defenders, which tried without success to repel the invader, whose identity remained shrouded in mystery. We, the labourers of the manufactorum, knew that there, amongst the stars, dark horrors threatened the sacred Imperium. As I said, we forged ammunition, weapons and engines of war. But we did not know their faces, their screams and their laughs. Those who knew kept its knowledge secret. _“Do not abandon your position. You are of the Omnissiah, your actions are the worship of the Machine God. Any deserter shall be punished”_ , repeated the voice in the vox emitters.

  
With each explosion, Aurina shocked in fear, and looked at me, crying. She had her station besides mine, and as the time passed we grew close. She was weaker than me, in her spirit: always sad, and grim. She delivered, in her job, do not get me wrong, but she did with sorrow in her face. Life is hard, a little bit too much for her. That is why the tech-priests chose me instead of her for the breeding program, and inserted the seed of new workers within my womb. For her, I became a beacon, a pillar of strength. If I was around, her gloom was less conspicuous.

  
In that moment, her eyes searched mine for that strength. I tried my best for calming her, overcoming my own fear and the pain of my pregnancy. _“Do not abandon your position. You are of the Omnissiah, your actions are the worship of the Machine God. Any deserter shall be punished”_. Over the roaring din of the battle outside, I managed to speak to her: “You need to work, please. It is your sacred duty: Men and women outside are dying for us, do not let their sacrifice be for naught”.

  
Her answer was lost. A blast send the giant gates of our section through the air, and ended on top of some comrades. Guards entered, sending bright red lights of fire through the clouding dust and smoke. They cried orders that we did not listened. _“Do not abandon your position. You are of the Omnissiah, your actions are the worship of the Machine God. Any deserter shall be punished”_. A horrific laugh sounded from where the guards were shooting to.

  
Green tusked giants entered, armed with ramshackle axes and pistols. They roared and the laughed as they cut into the guards, or smashed their heads with their enormous fists, or spattered them with impossible shots from impossible guns. Then they charged, if harmed, ignoring all pain, to us. I, can’t recall what happened then. It was chaos. Through the lens of my mechanical eye I saw the signature of those beasts getting closer. I panicked, and faith dwindled. I saw the true horror that the bullets and bolts we fabricated were for, and fear took control of my actions. Fear for me, fear for that which was growing inside of me, fear for Aurina, whose face I saw in my imagination being sullied by those monsters’ brutality.

  
_“Do not abandon your position. You are of the Omnissiah, your actions are the worship of the Machine God. Any deserter shall be punished”_.

  
We ran away. We abandoned our sacred duty. We failed the Emperor. We ended in a small cell, and we close its gates, and we reinforced it with beds and rubble. She cried, mumbled words of death. I embraced her, promising that if we were to die, then we shall do it together. “I shall be with you, my sweet love, my golden light, until the end”. In my mind, I regretted my actions. Driven by fear, I had committed heresy and even worse, I had made her do the same. I truly deserved death, but not her. And thus, I went for the Emperor’s help.

  
“We should pray, my love”. She looked at me, with her eyes wet and her face red. She nodded, and then we grab our hands. As terrible drumming sounds told us of the presence of those beasts on the other side of the gates, trying to get to us for slaughter, we prayed:

  
“Oh, Holy God Emperor of Mankind  
Praised be Thy Name  
May Thy Light grant me Thy Strength  
So I can vanquish Thy foes  
And set myself free of corruption  
May Thy Light grant me Thy Might  
So I can spread Thy Word  
And smite those who deny it  
May Thy Light grant me Thy Wisdom  
So I can teach the ignorant  
And identify the treacherous.  
By Thy Light…”

_…I shall know no fear_ , said a voice in the dark of the cell.

  
Thundering steps advanced from behind us, made by the feet of angels of emerald and silver. As the gate fell, they raised their weapons and spilled death and His unquenched wrath to the beasts. They responded, invigorated as if their mighty rivals were but a new, better challenge. Axe fell upon them, but their holy armour was not pierced. And they answered with furious fists, which shined with murderous blue rage. At the end of the brawl, beast flesh tainted the floor with green blood, with our saviours standing as the mighty sons of the Lord of Humanity that they were. Angels of Death, His Bulwark against the Terror, The Defenders of Humanity: Space Marines, for whom we forged, for whom we were sacrificed working in the fiery pits of the manufactorum.

  
With glory and renewed faith in my eyes I understood, as I looked at them. Piercing the infested skies they arrived, and then they made for the secret tunnels that ran below the city. Some of them happened to have an exit in that very cell. The Emperor, praised be His Name, had listened to me. He had seen my repenting and deemed it true. He had sent his avenging sons to save us, and now I had a debt to pay.

  
The leader of the squad looked at me from above. “Are you both unharmed”, he said, from beneath his formidable helmet. I nodded. “We shall escort you to safety”. Then he looked to Aurina and asked: “Have you got a weapon?”. Her silence was her answer, and he understood. “Take my knife, you must defend your wife, for she bears new life”. I could not accept that. My actions made Aurina commit blasphemy, and now that the Emperor had forgiven us, I needed to atone for my sins. I would be the defender, and Aurina the defendant. “As pregnant as I am, I am fully able to defend the both of us. The Emperor protects!”.

  
The leader looked at me, and nodded. He gave me his blade, a sword in my frail mortal hands, and then forced us to take defensive positions within his squad. We were about to enter the darkness when I said to him: “Thank you, my Lord”.

  
The only answer I get was: “It’s _Lady_ ”.


End file.
